In a new move the Planning Commission seeks to include the goal of building Smart Bangladesh in the government’s Medium Term Development Plan.
At present, initiatives have been taken to formulate the Ninth Five Year Plan (2026-2030) by the General Economic Department (GED) of the Commission, according to an official document procured by UNB this week.
It said that the possible development philosophies in the Ninth Five Year Plan will be- Implementation of ‘Vision 2041’ and construction of ‘Smart Bangladesh, successfully addressing the challenges of transition from least developed countries (LDCs), achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Upper Medium income country status by 2031.
The others will be- accelerate growth, strengthen macroeconomic stability, Inflation control, employment generation and poverty alleviation, sustainable use of natural resources and natural disasters and coping with the impact of climate change, ensuring regional balanced development and planned urbanisation, and evelopment of important institutions and establishment of rule of law.
In the plan, efforts will be made to implement the promises given in the election manifesto 2024 of Bangladesh Awami League besides incorporating the concept and strategy of building Smart Bangladesh in setting overall and sector-wise development targets, strategies and activities.
These are- keeping prices affordable; ensuring vocational education and employment; Building smart Bangladesh based on modern technology; Increasing efficiency and capacity in the financial sector including banking; making health care affordable for low-income people; Inclusion of all in the universal pension system; integrated farming systems, mechanisation and with a view to profitable agriculture increased investment in processing; and industries and services by leveraging visible infrastructure and increasing investment expanding the sector.
The document mentioned that current Awami League government has adopted a significant number of development plans in the medium and long term as part of the measures taken with the aim of economic development in the last 15 years (2009-2024).
As a result of the adoption and implementation of all these plans, Bangladesh has now been recognised as a role model for development in the world.
The current Awami League government formulated the “First Perspective Plan of Bangladesh (2010-2021)” as a long-term plan to achieve the specific goals of economic and social development of Bangladesh with the aim of “Vision 2021” to continue the overall development and progress of the country, one of the goals of which was To promote Bangladesh to an information technology dependent middle income country by 2021.
The government has adopted and successfully implemented the 6th Five Year Plan (2011-2015) and 7th Five Year Plan (2016-2020) as medium term plans to realise the development vision of “Bangladesh First Vision Plan (2010-2021)”.
As a result, on July 1, 2015, Bangladesh was upgraded from a low-income country to a lower-middle-income country. An average growth of 7.13 percent was achieved during the 7th Five Year Plan period.
